Joy Of Writing While Mitch Finley Writes About Religion, His Wife, Kathy, Writes On Family, Marriage
FOR THE RECORD: June 6, 2000: Location wrong: Marquette University is located in Milwaukee, Wis. A story in Saturday’s InLife section listed an incorrect location.
Mention the name Mitch Finley and the words prolific and Catholic come to mind. He was written more than 30 religious books, most with a Catholic focus. His wife, Kathy, has authored three books of her own.
Both have new books out. Mitch, 54, has published “The Joy of Being a Lector,” a follow-up to “The Joy of Being a Eucharistic Minister.” Kathy, 52, has written “The Seeker’s Guide to Building a Christian Marriage,” which she will discuss during a reading at Auntie’s Bookstore on Wednesday.
Kathy writes in the time she can spare from her job as an adjunct instructor of religion at Gonzaga University and her volunteer work with engaged couples. “I don’t figure I’ll ever catch up” with Mitch, she says. “It’s hard to do much writing, I find, when I’m doing teaching.”
Her books center on marriage and family. “That’s been real important to me,” she says. “I think a lot of it had to do with my interest in family prayer and ritual. … I just felt like these were some resources I’d like out there.”
That marriage and family theme has carried over to her professional life. She has taught religion classes, mostly on Christian marriage, off and on for 19 years at Gonzaga. She has spent the past six years working with groups of engaged couples at St. Aloysius Catholic Church, and she and Mitch have led a variety of classes and workshops on family and marriage for the past 20 years.
Her books have a broader Christian appeal than most of Mitch’s.
“I try to include a Catholic perspective, but not limit myself to that,” she says.
She tried to draw from a wide variety of faith traditions for her book “Our Family Book of Days,” which lists important religious dates in a calendar format. “My intent was to try to be as universal as I could,” she says.
The Seattle native attended high school in Spokane and received a degree in theology from Gonzaga in 1970. She earned a graduate degree from Fordham University in 1972 and a graduate degree in counseling from Gonzaga in 1990.
Despite her degrees, books and experience, Kathy doesn’t claim to be an authority on families.
“I really try to make it clear whenever I’m talking about marriage and family and parenting that we are not experts,” she says. “We have listened to a lot of parents and what worked for them.”
Her next book will be on creativity and spirituality.
“I want to keep writing at this point,” she says. “I love all the things I’m doing.”
Even though Mitch has been writing full time for years, he took on the part-time job as author-events coordinator at Auntie’s Bookstore over four years ago. At the time, he was looking for additional money to pay for his children’s education at Gonzaga Prep and a reason to get out of the house.
“I felt like it would be kind of good to have a social life,” he says. “I’ve stuck around because I enjoy it.”
Despite his success, Mitch’s writing career almost didn’t get off the ground. He entered Santa Clara University in 1969 as an English major because he thought he might like to write. That feeling lasted until he turned in his first paper and read the note his professor wrote on it.
“It’s one of those things that are burned into your memory for all time,” he says. “The note said, `I think I spent more time on this than you did.’
“This got my attention. I was cut to the quick.”
He took some religion classes and liked them so much that he switched to become a religious studies major.
“I graduated with a B.A. in religious studies and became a writer anyway,” he laughs. “One thing led to another, and here I am.”
His time in college was financed by the GI Bill after he served in the Navy from 1965-1969, stationed in various places in the United States and Hawaii.
“It was clear that A, if I didn’t join something, I was going to be drafted into the Army, and B, I didn’t have the motivation or the money to go to college at that point,” he says. “I had to do something, so I joined the Navy.”
After graduating from Santa Clara in 1973, Mitch moved to Spokane and took a job as the director of religious education at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in the Valley. Kathy was working as the religious education director at Sacred Heart Church in Pullman, and the two met at a meeting of education directors. A whirlwind romance ensued, says Kathy.
“We met in late August, didn’t see each other again until September, we were engaged at Thanksgiving and married in March,” she says.
“It was pretty scary. It happened so fast.”
They lived in Michigan for two years while Mitch earned a master’s degree in theology at Marquette University. The two worked at a church in Bremerton for a year before moving back to Spokane in the late 1970s.
Mitch and Kathy served as director and assistant director of the Family Life Office of the Catholic Diocese of Spokane. They worked together for four years before Kathy lost her job.
“The office we were responsible for was reorganized out of existence,” says Mitch.
He led a downsized office for a year by himself before he, too, lost his job. After writing articles on the side for years, Mitch decided to make the leap to writing full time. His first book was published in 1984.
He averages about three books a year and also writes a syndicated column for Catholic newspapers around the country. Almost all of his writing deals with various aspects of the Catholic Church.
“Sometimes I think them up, and sometimes the publisher suggests them,” he says. “Sometimes I’ll suggest something, and we’ll talk about it and we’ll end up with something else entirely different.”
Still, some of his favorite books are ones that are geared toward a wider audience, such as “101 Ways to Nourish Your Soul,” which is packed with common-sense suggestions like read a good book, visit a zoo, stop trying to fix yourself and give God a piece of your mind.
“It really is pitched to a very wide audience,” he says.
“It’s not just focused on Catholic readers. It’s intended for almost everybody.”
Mitch studiously avoids dry, academic language in his books, instead writing in everyday English infused with common sense and humor. Part one of “The Joy of Being a Lector,” called the Spirituality of the Lector, talks about how we are all pigs with haloes and wings, jostling and snuffling at the great trough of life.
He says his writing style is aimed at people who live in the real world.
“As a writer writing about religion in a society where the dominant popular culture has a hands-off attitude toward religion, I try to write about it in ways that are not pietistic (overly devoted to religion) and are not superficial at the same time,” he says.
Though his books are filled with suggestions on how to live the Catholic life, Mitch finds that he can’t follow his own advice as much as he would like. The Finleys are members of St. Ann’s Catholic Church in Spokane’s East Central Neighborhood and serve as lectors when they are not traveling to conferences and workshops.
“It’s kind of hard when you’re out of town as much as we are to do as much as you’d like to do,” he says. “There’s almost a contradiction there.
“I’m encouraging people to do this, you know, but I can’t do it myself.”
It’s a feeling that Kathy shares. Even as she writes about marriage and family issues, she works hard to carve out time for her own family. Still she finds herself wondering what more she could have done.
The Finleys have three sons, Sean, Patrick and Kevin, who range in age from 19 to 22.
Kathy and Mitch have had weekly date nights since their youngest son was a baby. They did family-night activities and had one-on-one time with the kids on the weekends.
Despite their schedules, at least one of them was home with the kids nearly every night.
“I wish we had done more,” she says.
She also emphasized the importance of imagination and creativity.
“They’re all into art or music or both,” she says - even Mitch, who plays the banjo.
He took up the five-string banjo a year ago, something he has wanted to do since high school when folk music was the rage.
“I always really enjoyed the part the banjo played in that music,” he says.
He now spends time almost every day practicing and wishes he had started playing long ago.
“Nobody, I think, would care to listen to me right now, but I’m having a great time,” he says.
His new-found passion for the stringed instrument is a development his wife has watched with some amusement.
“I play the guitar,” she says, “but I’m not as fanatic about it.”
Nina Culver can be reached at (509) 459-5487 or by e-mail at ninac@spokesman.com.
These 2 sidebars appeared with the story:
1. READING
Kathleen Finley
Kathleen Finley will discuss her latest book, “The Seeker’s Guide to Building a Christian Marriage,” at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main.
2. FINLEY BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books by Kathleen Finley:
“The Seeker’s Guide to Building a Christian Marriage”
“Dear God: Prayers for Families with Children”
“Our Family Book of Days”
Selected titles by Mitch Finley:
“101 Ways to Nourish Your Soul”
“For Men Only: Strategies for Living Catholic”
“The Joy of Being a Eucharistic Minister”
“The Joy of Being Catholic”
“The Joy of Being a Lector”
“Prayer for People Who Think Too Much: A Guide to Everyday, Anywhere Prayer from the World’s Faith Traditions”
“The Seeker’s Guide to Being Catholic”
“The Seeker’s Guide to the Christian Story”
“Surprising Mary: Meditations and Prayers on the Mother of Jesus”
“Whispers of Love: Inspiring Encounters with Deceased Relatives and Friends”
“The Truth About Christmas”
“The Catholic Virtues: Seven Pillars of a Good Life”
“Catholic Is Wonderful: How to Make the Most of It”
“Everybody Has a Guardian Angel and Other Lasting Lessons I Learned in Catholic Schools”
Coming this summer by Mitch Finley:
“The Seeker’s Guide to Saints”
“Your One-Stop Guide to Mary”